Jack Perry

When I first arrived in Madrid to take part in the internship that I subsequently quit to go volunteer on a farm, I was put up by a friend of my fathers who works at the British embassy.

Saying that makes me sound a lot better connected than I actually am.

During the few days I stayed with her in her apartment we had a couple of evenings chatting over a late-night cup-o-tea. It turned out we had one massive thing in common; China.

It turned out her Grandfather, Jack Perry, was one of the pioneers of British-Chinese trade after the Second World War. It was by no means made easy for him; there were American lead embargos and boycotts, hostility from HongKongese companies that saw themselves as the bridge between Britain and China as well as general wariness of anyone willing to do business with the Commies. You can read a bio of this fantastic man on the China-British Business Council website here.

It just so happens that he wrote a book, which I have just finished reading, and is one of the most refreshing accounts of 20th century China I have ever read. Despite coming from a business background he does not address solely this area. He muses about the philosphy of the country and tells many great stories; from his first ever long train ride from the South to the North of the country, to the time his wife had a chat with Che Guevara.

He is very pro-Chinese, occasionally to the point of excess (he scoots over the horrors of the cultural revolution and practically defends Tian'anmen Square and blames it on America), but his approach to Chinese socialism is a breath of fresh air when compared to the constant barrage of criticism made on the country by modern, Western, mainstream media.

I am pretty sure his book, From Brick Lane to the Forbidden City, is out of print and practically impossible to find, but I wanted to write this blog about it to urge you to search out alternative points of view on the country that seems to have come to dominate my life. I am not one to defend some of the stuff that happened in the cultural revolution, Tian'anmen Square, the Uighur riots of last year or those in Tibet in 2008, but by reading accounts that are able to defend them, my own view of the country becomes more rounded and balanced.

For the love of God, don't judge the country on the Guardian.co.uk China collumn.

Even if you seek out and read what you know is controlled propoganda, at least then you can understand the intentions of what is soon going to be the most powerful nation on Earth.

And of course, if you are ever fortunate enough to come across Jack's book, don't hesitate to pick it up.

Post SitC Woofing

First things first, watch this. It's a fantastic summary video of Summer in the City 2010 by CasioClark. I appear in it a couple of times, waving my hands about and shouting... which is pretty standard for me at SitC events.

SitC this year was especially important for me, because it was the first time I have seen my virtual friends since last summer, and it's also the last time I will see them until next years event. Lots of long hugs were had and I'm gutted for all the people who couldn't come; NSG, whataboutadam, MissYau etc. But it was exactly what I needed in the middle of this long hot summer... and it's 95 degrees in the shade...

I am ashamed for quoting Girls Aloud. Apologies.

So, I've been in Madrid for the past six weeks or so. I've kinda kept that under my belt. Unintentionally of course. I have to do at least 8 weeks here as part of my Uni course, so was here on an internship with an media company. I won't go into details, wouldn't be professional and all that, but due to the circumstances in which I was working and a dodgy relationship with the boss I decided to quit. So for the past week and a half or so I have been jobless, trying desperately to find something to do with my time. I tried charities, other internships, but no one seemed to be hiring or looking for help. To be fair, it's also Madrid in at the beginning of August, half the businesses close down for the holidays.

I have ended up settling on wwoofing my last couple of weeks here. Wwoofing (Willing workers on organic farms) is an organisation based around a website where willing workers (volunteers) work on organic farms... funnily enough. You get put up and looked after in exchange for doing various jobs around the farm. I have wanted to do this for ages. It was an option when I was touring Japan, and I was thinking of doing it around New Zealand next summer after I finish my second year in China. But I had a good friend from Uni doing it so I thought I would join her, so in a couple of hours I will be on a bus bound for Barcelona, arrive there in the morning, and hopefully be on the farm by tomorrow afternoon or early evening.

One annoying thing was that I went food shopping only a couple of days ago. This was all very last minute by the way. And so I have been eating like a pig so I don't get rotting vegetables in my cupboard when I get back. Not that it has mattered that much, loads of my carrots, my lettuce and all my pork chops went off prematurely over the last couple of days. I was very annoyed.

On another note, I haven't mentioned the house that I'm staying in! It's wonderful. It's all a bit touch and go because not all the people are here because it's summer, and people have been arriving and leaving as the rooms switch over, but it's full of young people from all over Europe. A good few of them are artists, and all very friendly. It's very similar to L'Auberge Espagnole if anyone has ever seen it, just in Madrid, not Barcelona.

I wish I had a camera so I could show photos of my time here. When I have money I will be sure to invest.

I will update when I have things to update. I'm not taking my laptop to Catalunya because I think some time offline will do me good. Which may seem ironic to those of you who are still waiting on new RWO videos. I still haven't managed to sort out the technological difficulties on that front. Sorry.

In the mean time, a photo from SitC

Ciao

杰

SitC

Some of you may know that I am one of the organisers for the largest YouTube gathering in Europe, Summer in the City, which will be taking place next weekend between the 6th and 8th of August.

One of my bigger jobs is that of editor of the SitC Publication, which is a guide/ magazine/ souvenir for the weekend with articles, information and pretty pictures. If all goes smoothly there will be a publication this year as well (touch wood) for which I have the great privilage of writing the forward. I thought I would give you all a little teaser of the publication by posting part of my forward here. Enjoy, and I will see you next weekend.

Nearly a year has gone by and my, look how we’ve grown. In twelve short months our little community has changed so much that some may even question the relevance of a gathering like Summer in the City for a community that is constantly morphing and changing.

For those of us that have been here for a while, YouTube has in many cases either had to take a back seat as our ‘real’ lives develop, or has grown to become our livelihoods and careers. I myself have spent the last year in China, so my life online has had to take a back seat. I have become somewhat detached from the core of the site; I’m not sure who everyone is watching, what companies have been cosying up to us lately and I have no idea where all the stars have gone. However, I have deliberately planned my summer so that I will be in London for this gathering, why?

At the beginning gatherings, I’m thinking back to 2007, were a way to geek out with people who had the same interests as you, with whom you shared hobbies, ambitions and idols. As time went on these people became not just our YouTube friends, but some of the most important people in our lives; our flatmates, our boyfriends and girlfriends, our support network for when we broke up with these boyfriends and girlfriends.

This process begins at every single YouTube meet-up. Whenever it is someone’s first gathering, they are meeting people that may become long standing features of their world. YouTube attracts a certain kind of person; we’re all a bit too nerdy for our own good, we all like meeting new people and we all like to show off a bit. No matter how much YouTube changes, no matter how commercial it will or will not become, whether you call them a Pogotribe, Nerdfighters or just plain YouTubers, this kind of person will still be coming to these kinds of meet-ups. For the foreseeable future, I will still be coming to these meet-ups, whether my channel lays neglected or not, because the people you meet at YouTube gatherings are often some of the most quirky, fascinating and loyal people you will ever meet.

Explanation...

You all deserve an explanation for my absence. I feel terrible about it, and trust me, it isn't by choice. I have missed blogging and making videos, but crappy circumstances have been the bane of my existence.

This is going to be long winded and not very interesting. For those of you uninterested, I will try blogging more often on here in the coming months.

I was planning on taking a break after the election videos anyway. I had exams coming up and needed to knuckle down, try and pass a few of them, etc. But when I was making my last video for that series the problems started, hence why Adam stood in for me.

I had filmed my video, in fact it is still on my camera, but editing software and this good for nothing computer decided to start being incompatible with my camera footage for the first time in over three years. I don't understand different types of video or file sizes and stuff very much, but I know that in order for me to be able to edit my videos in Windows Movie Maker, which I have used my whole time on YouTube, I had to pass the whole file through the software to make the file smaller before I cane edit it without pauses at each cut. For whatever reason, when I try and pass the original file from the camera through WMM now, it cuts out half way through. Ergo, nothing to edit.

So I left that for a few weeks, focusing on Chinese and graduating for a while and not worrying about it, thinking it was a one time thing. But then when I started trying to do some things for JazzainChina, the same thing happened. WMM, the simplest but what, for me, had been so reliable to me, had decided to pack in. I even tried downloading newer and older versions of the software. No luck, same problem.

A friend of mine in China is a film major and helped me install a version of Adobe Premier Pro CS4. To be honest, I have no idea how to use it properly, even after a crash course with Paul over last weekend. I have the same problem. Even when I render everything, I get a pause at every cut, or the video freezes as the audio continues.

So yeah, this is why I haven't been around at all. And sorry for my general absence from the internet. I want to be back.

If anyone has any advice, please let me know in the comments or send me an email at rhymingwithoranges@gmail.com

杰

Korean Revision

I have been absent from the Internet for a while. For this I should probably apologise. I would like to think that it was a conscious decision to focus more on my studying in the run up to the exam period, but now I look back I do feel I have to ask myself if I have pulled my finger out and got work done.

I was in South Korea with Adam for the past ten days. It was impulse buying in its most spectacular form. I was talking to Adam on Skype, he was talking about going to Korea, I decided I fancied a holiday, I had just received my student loan, so five minutes later I was booked on a plane to Seoul. I then soon realised this holiday was the week before my exams started, but you know what? Bugger it, I had an awesome time.

I was a good boy in Korea though. More or less every d

ay we found Adam a department store to go and wonder round for an hour or two so I could sit in a cafe and work my way through my HSK vocabulary. Here is proof.

Korea was just what I needed though, even if it did stifle my productivity a little. I had a nice step back and China feels fresh again, I missed greasy food and soup noodles.

I go home two weeks today. There will be a wedding, hopefully some gatherings and some meetings, then I am off to Spain for work experience. This end stretch is passing far too quickly.

I'm now off to have some sangria with a Japanese friend of mine who is going home. Tata!

Our Obama

I’m ever so excited.

After a few days of intense negotiations, resignations and compromises The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has a new Prime Minister and its first coalition government since World War Two. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats enter into a full coalition, with Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister and four other cabinet posts to sweeten the deal. This is the first time in generations that the Lib Dems, or their predecessors the Liberals, have held power in cabinet. This is an exciting time for them.

Labour are defeated, but will live to fight another day. There was talk before the election that humiliation at the polls would break the party up, it’s funny how much can change in a week. Gordon stepped down as leader, Harriet Harman temporarily stepping into his shoes whilst the party decides on who will face Cameron as leader of the opposition in the next five years.

On a separate note, Harriet Harman has mentioned that she herself will not stand in the Labour leadership race. I think this is a great shame. She is a woman with character and balls, she is not scared to call herself a feminist and regularly out-shone Gordon when she stood in for him at Prime Minister’s Questions. If she maintains the stance that she does not want to run, it will be a great shame.

This is essentially going to be a time for Labour to dust themselves off, straighten their ties and go into effective opposition. I think after three terms they were getting a bit cocky. I’m a great believer in bringing down the powerful a peg or two.

The Liberal Democrats have gotten some stick for this coalition. Lib and Con are on separate sides of the political divide, after years of mudslinging in parliament and the name calling of the election how, are they expected to form an effective government with which they have very little in common ideologically?

A follower of mine on Twitter said that she would no longer be calling herself a Lib Dem supporter, that they had “sold out” to the Tories. I would not agree with this view. The only stable option for a government was this Lib-Con alliance. If they had decided to go with Labour they would have still had to form a minority government, with no majority to pass legislation. I believe this would have been catastrophic for our financial markets, and would not have bared well for our country as the rest of Europe is in turmoil. We needed stability and a government that could govern effectively. This was the only option.

What I find interesting about the Lib Dem’s situation are the cabinet posts being offered, especially that of Clegg’s new role as Deputy PM. What will he do with a job that in the UK has very little power and does little more than stand in for the PM when they are on holiday or abroad?

So the Tories got in. They get to keep their cap on immigration, their plan for “Sweedish style” schools and the renewal of trident. They yield to the Lib Dems a referendum on the voting system (which, if it doesn’t pass, I will be very annoyed about), reducing tax burdens to lower earners and more funding for schools that take on poorer pupils.

I must say, with Cameron’s speech as he entered Number 10, he looked like Prime Minister, he looked ready to govern. He talked of compromise and working together. This is what the British people voted for, he respected that, I respect him for respecting that.

Yesterday the Prime Minister and his deputy held a joint press conference in the garden of Number 10. I am honestly blown away. I could almost say that I am proud of our politicians for reaching compromise, agreeing to work together and respecting the wishes of the British people… almost. This coalition will either sink or swim together. I sincerely hope current amicable relations within the coalition are maintained.

We truly are seeing history in the making. And who’d have thought it would have just involved politicians agreeing to disagree and trying their best to get along? This is democracy, this is our Obama… just without a black man.

Nail Gnashing

I’m currently being a bit of a bad student and am 逃课ing, so I decided to come to the café downstairs and write a blog about nothing in particular; train of thought like.

The weather is beginning to pick up. I was kind of banking on this because my heating has been broken for the past two weeks or so, but I was struggling to find the motivation to get someone to fix it. I have been sleeping in my duffel coat and three pairs of socks and spending as much time as I can in other people’s houses, cafés or at work. The forecast is gradually getting warmer and will reach the dizzy heights of 25-29°C by the weekend. Nanjing changes seasons very rapidly (spring and autumn only last a week or so), so there is little doubt that I will be complaining about sweaty armpits and mosquitoes in no time.

I have finally managed to find myself a tutor I can afford. At 35元/hour he is a bargain and I have my first class with him tomorrow. The classes organised by the university are all very well but there are quite a few people, over twenty I think, and it’s just too easy to get lost in the crowd. I have also managed to get myself a language partner, and the fantastic news is that her English is terrible, so I have to speak Chinese to her. In fact, a few times I have had to force her to speak English to me (when it is her turn to practice). It’s wonderful! So often a language partner will insist on speaking English most of the time, but Mona and I; we work well together. We’re going to the movies soon. I’ll help her through an English movie and she’ll do the same with a Chinese one. This was how I learnt Spanish and French way back when, so hopefully it will work here too.

I’m still trying to find work in Spain during summer. I have some links with a hotel in Marbella, but frankly that is the last place I want to end up. Far too many leather skinned, chiwawa-carrying, liposuctioned Brits there for my liking. I want to go somewhere where there are some actual Spanish people. I am going to get in touch with a couple of people I know in Barcelona (my favourite city on the European mainland) and see if they can have a look around on my behalf for bar work or some kind of temping agency. I will literally take anything. I did apply for work experience at the British embassy in Madrid but never heard back from them. I’ll follow that up, but I am doubtful.

I have been reading up on the Digital Economy Bill recently and am planning on making a video about it. Before I do I am trying to make sure I am as informed as possible so I can lay into it properly. I am a user of an awful lot of the services that are going to be affected, probably negatively, by this bill, and I think it’s really important we are aware of it and debate it openly. I don’t like that Mandelson seems to be trying to rush it through the House of Lord before the election. Expect that video on RWO before the end of the week.

Speaking of videos, I do apologise if anyone is hanging on for more JazzainChina content. I do have lots of footage to upload (including all the Japan footage, which I am considering making yet another new channel for) but have been über busy with classes starting again, trying to find a job and a tutor, and generally living. I will try and upload some soon, but I refuse to make a commitment as to when this will happen.

Just looked back on this blog and decided it needed a picture, or something, so here is a picture of when I went on a bike ride (one that lasted far too long) to see the plumb blossom... blossom. You can see I carried George the Ukulele 2.0 with me too.

In completely unrelated news, I am trying to stop biting my nails. I have managed to reduce the gnashing of my fingertips to a gentle nibble on all fronts apart from on my thumbs, which are still as hacked to dead as they always have been. Baby steps though, eh?